There's a million graffiti books out there
so why does this one covering yet another part of America warrant your
attention (not to mention your cash)? Because, quite simply, its
excellent. Most excellent in fact. It's excellent in a way that very few
books in this genre achieve. Maybe it's the light in San Francisco that
gives the pictures in this largish format book their punch. They're
certainly sharp and colourful and are selected from a period of four years
when the photographer spent up to seven days a week capturing every bit of
graffiti he could find. He may be suffering from an obsessive compulsive
disorder but quite frankly that's his problem and our gain. Thousands of
flicks didn't make the cut so what is in here is quality distilled down to
a select few hundred. The whole book is laid out with a love of design and
care rarely seen too. Some of the graffiti is organised not into styles or
writers but into the surfaces they are painted on to so there are spreads
devoted to vans, tunnels, doors, abandoned buildings and coaches but oddly
no rail transit vehicles. I've never been to SF so maybe they just don't
exist (but empty tracks do feature in here).

Short interviews with writers are
interspersed with stunning pictures of work that sometimes takes three
seconds to complete to pieces that must span several days. It reads like a
best of graffiti pictures on Flickr but its actually only one area and one
photographer. That's pretty insane.

Did I mention that this book is excellent?
Yes, I think I probably did.